Those settings were in part brought to life for me by two local publications, the 1950s-era Kansas City Area of Missouri (undated) published by the Missouri State Division of Resources and Development; and the wonderfully photo-illustrated The ’50s in St. Louis (1980) by Lonnie Tettaton. Also helpful were U.S.A. Confidential (1952), Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer; two St. Louis Today articles by Bill McClellan, “Following in Dad’s Footsteps” (2017) and “In St. Louis’ Story, Everyone’s Linked” (2012); and the article “The DeBaliviere Strip” by Jo Ann Vatcha in the September–October 2013 issue of the neighborhood newspaper, The Times of Skinker DeBaliviere. In an undated article from Illinois Heritage, William P. Shannon writes about Chuck Berry and Club Cosmopolitan in “Music History Made in Illinois,” available at historyillinois.org.

Much information about the Greenlease family, and in particular the charitable work of Bobby Greenlease’s parents, can be found at the Greenlease Family Website (greenleasefamily.com).

Also referred to were the WPA guides to Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, California, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. Disneyland references include Disney’s Land (2019), Richard Snow, Walt Disney’s Disneyland (2020), Chris Nichols, and material at Mouseplanet.com, specifically “Disneyland 1958” (Parts One and Two) by Jim Kortis. I drew upon Los Angeles’s Bunker Hill: Pulp Fiction’s Mean Streets and Film Noir’s Ground Zero! (2012), Jim Dawson, as well as Kiss Me Deadly (1955), which I nod to in a borrowed line of dialogue, and half a dozen other classic films noir.

Among a plethora of postings on You Tube about the case, two stand out: “The Bobby Greenlease Kidnapping and Murder Sites Now!” on LandumC Goes There; and “Coral Court Caper” Parts 1 and 2, History of the Mother Road—Route 66, by Insane Sam Allen. Two episodes of true-crime TV programs center on the Greenlease case and I screened both: A Crime to Remember, “Baby Come Home” (2014) and Deadly Women, “Under His Control” (2010). Online I looked at news stories of the day in the New York Times and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, among many others. Also available—thanks to the Freedom of Information and Privacy Acts—was The Greenlease Kidnapping Summary Report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

One tidbit I did not find a way to include in the novel is Bonnie Heady on Death Row reading Mickey Spillane’s The Big Kill, a book that concludes with a child killing an evil woman.

Due to Covid lockdown and other factors, I did not work extensively with my longtime research associate, George Hagenauer, but we did discuss aspects of the case.

Thanks as always to my great friend and agent, Dominick Abel, and my always enthusiastic, understanding editor Charles Ardai, who made a new home for Nathan Heller. The gang at Titan Books—including but not limited to Vivian Cheung, Nick Landau, Laura Price, Paul Gill and Andrew Sumner—has been similarly supportive. Nate Heller and I thank you.

Barbara Collins—my wife, best friend and valued collaborator—read each chapter even though she was working on her drafts of two collaborative projects of ours. No one ever had a smarter, more beautiful cheerleader to act as sounding board and editor. Even with the haunting resonance of a six-year-old grandchild, she was able to provide her usual expertise to this project.